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Volkswagen group to increase capacity by 20,000 units

Expanding production capacity marginally, setting up a design centre, launching new models, increasing localisation levels, and having a regional celebrity as brand ambassador are among German automobile group Volkswagen’s to increase its market share in India, said a senior company official on Friday.

Steffen Knapp, Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, also told media persons that the Volkswagen group will invest 1 billion euros as part of the India 2.0 strategy, a strategic alliance between Volkswagen and Skoda Auto under which the latter will development volume segment products for the Indian market.

As per the new game plan, Skoda will take lead for bringing Volkswagen’s MQB Ao IN platform in India in addition to develop small volume driven cars.

The MQB Ao IN platform standardizes components, dimensions and productions processes. Costs and production time are reduced. Furthermore, the MQB platform increases flexibility when developing new vehicles. Most of the technical development will take place in India.

Knapp said the production capacity will be increased by 20,000 units per annum to 200,000 units per annum at the company’s Pune plant.

He said that the additional investment of about Rs 8,000 crore will go towards setting up of a design centre in Pune, development of new models and other activities.

Volkswagen will launch a sports utility vehicle (SUV) and Knapp said the company will not be missing the SUV sales boom. Presently, Volkswagen has 121 dealers in 104 Indian cities.

On the electric vehicle plans globally, he said that Volkswagen has a clear intention to be the one to mobilise the electrification process for the masses.

According to Volkswagen, there are lot of things that need to be ready in India and currently it is monitoring the market.